No one knows more about parking the bus than Jose Mourinho. Though in England he’s often credited with coining the phrase as a derisory comment about Tottenham playing defensively in 2004, Mourinho is a manager who is not afraid to go all-out defense to get a result.
On Wednesday, someone parked Mourinho’s bus.
Chicharito has finally made an appearance in an actual West Ham game. The Hammers' new number 17 took the field for the last 20 minutes or so of their friendly against German fifth-tier side Altona 93, which ended in a 3-3 draw.
Hopefully Chicharito can gain full fitness before West Ham's first league match, against Manchester United on August 13.
At Chivas, Chicharito wore number 14. At Manchester United, he wore number 14. At Real Madrid, he wore number 14. At Bayer Leverkusen, he wore number seven. For the Mexico National Team, he wears number 14. For West Ham, Pedro Obian wears number 14 and Sofiane Feghouli wears number seven, so Chicharito will wear number 17.
At the very least, it gives West Ham a clever little hashtag they can use.
Cue a thousand corny jokes about swiping right on transfers and Manchester United fans finally getting a decent match: Tinder has reportedly offered a deal to become Manchester United’s sleeve sponsor.
We get it, we really do. You get drunk, you start to air some grievances at your employer and your colleagues, it happens. We don’t do that at The18 per se, because we love each other and you shouldn’t do that, but we totally get it when you’re a Sunderland employee.
Can you imagine how stressful working for Sunderland must be? Every year, your company is sometimes weeks, sometimes days from going under. There’s no stability, and you’re micromanaged by David Moyes. You have to watch the company visionaries do things like spend $13 million on Jozy Altidore.
Manchester United players Phil Jones and Daly Blind are in trouble with UEFA's anti-doping arm, but not for having actually doped. Before the Europa League final in May, Jones reportedly insulted a doping control officer and Blind reportedly wasn't following the controllers' directions.
Phil Jones charged with insulting & directing abusive language towards doping control officer, given two-match European ban + €5,000 fine
Last season, I felt really bad for Paul Pogba. Manchester United's record signing had to play in central midfield partnered with Marouane Fellaini. Pogba never had time or space to do cool Pogba stuff because he was busy putting out fires Fellaini had started.
This season, it looks like Pogba will be free, as Manchester United have brought in Serbian defensive midfielder Nemanja Matic, formerly of Chelsea, who complements Pogba's playing style way better than Fellaini did.
Saturday’s El Clasico at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami gave over 66,000 spectators the opportunity to watch the likes of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Gareth Bale, but the lasting legacy of this match will probably be the confrontation between Barcelona midfielder Ivan Rakitic and American referee Jair Marrufo.
Rakitic’s goal in the 7th minute gave Barca an early 2-0 lead, but his 73 minutes on the pitch weren’t entirely enjoyable.
The start of major European leagues looms and fans are anxious to see how their teams fare on opening weekend. But how much does the first match even matter? After all, it's a long season and teams have plenty of time to rebound from week one losses. Or do they?
Looking at the statistics, it appears that the first game can set the tone for an entire season. It can either give a burst of confidence or present an omen of troubles ahead.
Alexis Sanchez has a cold. He is currently not training with Arsenal because of said cold. He posted on Instagram about his cold and also one of his dogs was involved because duh.